Although earlier he had claimed that someone had broken into their house, murdered his wife, and fled with cash and ornaments, he broke down at the police station this morning, the police said.

Hari Prasad told the police that when he returned home from work in the afternoon he found Rekha sleeping. He asked her to serve him food but she hurled abuses at him. A quarrel broke out and he hit her on the head with an utensil. “She shouted another round of obscenities, and in a fit of rage, I slit her throat with a knife,” Hari Prasad told the police.

He also confessed he had tried to cover up the crime by making up a story about a robbery in which the perpetrators fled with Rs 13,000 and gold ornaments after killing Rekha. The police said both Hari Prasad and his wife were alcoholics and used to quarrel regularly.

A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered at the Ranipool police station. (Now a life sentence to have natural cure ?!!)